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NSNA over TB? :-S
On a purely personal basis, yes.
And congrats for the 11.000 posts!
1. DAF
2. TB
3. YOLT
These are my 3 desert island films.
One can sing the praises of these 3 movies for eternity , along with DN FRWL GF and OHMSS
:D
I think most fans have a problem with TB, in that it feels draggy in places. For me though it has great scenes and set pieces. I think the final underwater battle is superb, Adolph Celi is a great villain, and Connery is effortlessly cool (Apart from said helmet!!)
Thanks. ;-)
I guess whatever credit NSNA ever had with me, went away the minute I learned about the labour of hatred the film was. McClory made this film because he felt he had earned the right - which in all seriousness he hadn't - and also to give Cubby the finger, the same Cubby who had absolutely nothing to do with Fleming using some material McClory claimed to have co-written.
Worse still, if I had been given 15 years to work on a movie, I'd spend at least 12 of those digging out a good script, then make it better, then make it better still. I'd go back to the lines of dialogue, to the jokes, to the plot twists... and rethink them, rewrite them, improve wherever improvement were possible, and come up with the best Bond script ever. I'd court some of the greatest composers and singers, some of the finest actors and actresses. Instead, McClory felt the need to drag his disputes with zombie Fleming to court time and again, sabotage EON whenever a drop of water was seen in a Bond film and try to steal the likes of Barry and others away from the Bond family of EON. In the end, he delivered a film that hopes to beat the legendary gun barrel with a screen full of poorly drawn 007 logos, that kicks things off with soft pop music while Bond invades some guerilla warriors' hideout with fake pigeons, that plays Legrand's worst score of his entire career, that uses film stock of such low quality that the average television production of '83 had far better image and sound than NSNA, ...
Kevin McClory and his movie were both a joke and a constant pain in the butt for the real Bond film. One of the few people whose departure from this world didn't make me sad, McClory was the antichrist to the Bond series I love so much.
With Timothy Dalton as 007, which would have endeared the movie certainly to a certain kind of fanboy. >:)
All those great toys in the film, Aston Martin, Jet Pack, Rocket firing motorbike, a yacht that converted into a hydrofoil, underwater sledges armed with spear guns........etc.
Then that underwater battle must of looked great on the big screen...............and of course Sean Connery at his best.
It must of been a dream film to many back in those days. No wonder it went into the top ten film list of all time worldwide, with those massive admission figures.
No, no, and no.
In a hypothetical alternate dimension where, for some unholy reason, I had to chose only one Bond film, it would be Thunderball.
Yes.......those 70's revivals or double bills as they were in the UK, allowed me to catch up with the Bond films from the 60's, coz i was a little too young to see them at the time.
Somehow i never got to see DN or TB, as i never saw them included in a double bill.
The films DAF, YOLT, GF and OHMSS were often paired together in various ways.
DAF always seemed to be showing, and if it was not with another Bond film, then it got paired up with that Roger Moore action film GOLD. Remember that film?
No, that sequence was very good, and was only ruined by Michel Legrand's ridiculous score.
This is all true but, alas, I have a fascination for cheesy movies :-B This is so far the only reason I prefer NSNA despite being a way worse film than TB and/or OP... I'm one of that bad movie bluffs.
McClory was a cancer to Bond, indeed.
I was disappointed by the films final action piece, which seemed very weak compared to TB's.
I can't believe the producers released the film with Michel Legrands score, which was truly abysmal, and affected the picture significantly.
My dad's fav Bond film is TB, so far: he watched it when he was 12, got very impressed by the jetpack scene, and he showed it to me telling me there were no tricks there. I was... 7 or 8 and got quite impressed
Well, while starting as a Bond fan during my teenage years (I turned 32 today, so you can tell my limited experience), when I saw TB's jetpack sequence, I didn't remember it that way: I remembered Bond being filmed from a considerable distance flying very high and without helmet, in London and with the Parliament on the background. 8-} It's incredible how memory tricks you in only 10 years!
=D>
Bond is a brash sort. Very endearing. He does enjoy vanquishing his enemies.
I do like NSNA as alternative Bond film, as that's what it is. Connery is playing Bond as a real old dog Bond, playing his own age, semi-retired Bond.
Check out the dvd commentary that accompanies this film.
It is very revealing.
One of the biggest onstacles to production was Cubby. Understandably so I guess.
Swartzman the producer spent the entire production fending off Eon's legal challenges.
Cubby was watching production like a hawk to make sure they stuck to their strict legal rights parameters.
As a result Director Kershner didn't get the producer support he needed, and had to improvise a lot.
He says though that Sean was a big help and was very patient.
All told I think they pulled out a decent sidebar Bond film.
Death of Largo I think was lifted right from the book, so that was interesting I thought.
I liked seeing Valerie Leon again (hotel receptionist from TSWLM who visits Rog)
Bond is much more accommodating to her in this film.
Also I do think Almaric as Greene from QoS is very much a riff on Brandauer as Largo, although probably not intentional.
I thought Pamela Salem as MP was almost as good as Maxwell. Well cast.
There are plenty of films from that 60's/70's era that involve slow build-up of plot & story, and it is simply a mental shift you have to make when watching them as a Generation-X'er or Millennial.
And to answer the question - no , I don't think it's overrated. It is generally thought of as one of the more brash entries, but still better than average, if not quite a classic. Top ten surely.
Patronising nonsense. You can do better than this, surely? I believe it was Terence Young himself who openly despaired at how to make the underwater scenes work. On a first watch they are impressive in a bravura sort of way, but on a rewatch the whole thing begins to fall flat.
TB actually arguably suffers from an early case of the Michael Bays - it collapses under the weight of it's own spectacle. The relatively small and suspenseful stories told so successfully by Young in Dr No and FRWL gets lost here. And what should be a high stakes and suspense-driven plot is actually rather flaccid and unexciting.
Some great scenes, characters and casting, but as a whole this is a laboured and slightly dull film. And that's not a Michael Bay fan talking - trust me.
I appreciate that it was the biggest Bond film of its time and was instrumental in commercializing Bond worldwide. I'm also aware that the effects were phenomenal in its time. I have nothing against older movies - I have a rather high tolerance for :"boring" and slower-paced films, so I can actually watch and appreciate 60's films. That being said, I actually enjoyed Terence Young's work in Dr No and From Russia With Love more. I just don't think Terence Young should direct grand-scale movies like Lewis Gilbert - he's more suited for the slower and more subtle plot of FRWL, and that's where I enjoy his directing best.
Disagree, by all means - but I think you are dismissing my argument a little too easily & rashly there. There are many people who find the early Bonds too slow, with TB being chief among them in this regard. You took my use of Scott & Bay as a means to illustrate my point a little too personally, it seems :>
On a related note - there is a clear shift in pacing from TSWLM onwards... maybe smth to do with Glen's editing.
TSWLM and MR had very similar pacing, and I'd argue its more of the way it was written and directed by Gilbert as opposed to, well, anything else. Guy Hamilton wasn't that great at pacing, and Terence Young excelled at subtler, slower-paced films. Gilbert was better at the big ones. I think he more or less recognized that he didn't do it correctly in YOLT and attempted to perfect the pacing in TSWLM.